Saturday, July 19, 2008

I started seeing the posts in blog land for the Tour de Fleece but decided not to commit. That doesn’t mean I’m not involved. I’m a very active spectator. And like most spectators that are admiringly watching all the participants I couldn’t resist doing some spinning too. Here’s what I got.

This is the sheep 2 shoe kit from The Fold that I picked up from MSWF. It is super wash merino, and is called Rainbow. The roving in the kit is incredibly soft and I absolutely loved spinning it. This had to be the most buttery stuff I have spun so far.However, I think the results I got should be called Rainbow Gone Wild. I didn’t exactly follow the directions of how to divide the roving and spin it. Ok, I didn’t follow the directions at all. I divided the roving different then what it said and I 2 plied it instead of 3. I two plied it because the yarn came out thicker then what I was wanting. Then there are the colors. Wow, the colors are all over the place. I knitted up a swatch and I could see no pattern at all with the colors. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I do know that I will not use this to make socks. Well, not at this time. I’m putting it into the stash for now.

I also finished spinning this super wash merino I got from Little Barn at the festival. It’s funny because both rovings said they were superwash merino but there was a big difference in how they spun. I guess it depends on the sheep, processing, how it’s stored etc. Not to say this wasn’t fun to spin. It was just a different quality then the other roving. This one is just plain vanilla so to say. It will work great for socks but I might dye it at some time.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

This is a knit a long project I’m doing with my sister who lives in a different state. I have somehow managed to get further along on it then what she is. Actually I know how I’ve managed this, I only have about three projects on the needles at this time instead of the 5 or 6 she has. I also haven’t been getting to go to all the fun vacation places that she has been going to. You know how all that fun vacationing stuff squashes the time you get to spend knitting. Anyway, I was going to wait till I finished it before I posted about it. I am so close to finishing it, but I ran out of yarn. Don’t you just hate when that happens? Not to worry though, more is on its way. I’ll give more specifics on it when it is done. I had added stitches for the length (which is probably why I ran out of yarn). I told my sister I would post pictures so she could see how the extra stitches look. That way she can decide if she might want to add more stitches. I had added enough stitches to give it an extra inch in the front and an inch in the back. I really think it would be long enough without adding more stitches. I just don't like things to be to short in that area. Cropped tops are not my thing. I don't have much experience in blocking but I'm guessing that blocking it might add length to it to but I'm not sure. I am hoping that blocking it will take some of that curl out of the front edge.

This picture isn't that great at showing the length. It is still on the needles which makes it pull up on the right side of this picture but I liked the picture. It shows the texture nicely :).

Dax is modeling this. She is a little shorter than me but so is my sister ;).

Friday, July 11, 2008

I have yet to participate in the eye candy Friday. So, here is my first attempt at it.

These are moon jellies (moon jellyfish) . They are all over the beach right now. By the time they wash up on the beach they are harmless. Actually they are harmless even before they wash up on the beach, they usually only bother people with sensitive skin. Tyde is one of them, he says they feel like little ants bitting. It must not be too bad because it doesn’t get him out of the water, not like the man o’wars. Now those things hurt. I’ve also heard that turtles like to eat them. Whenever I see the moonjellies I think, "oh look turtle jello."

I took these pictures yesterday right before the sun went down. That’s why they look so shadowy and dark.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Since it’s almost been a week since, here is what we did over the 4th of July weekend.

First, thank you for the comments on the Ugly Sweater. I’m so glad that it isn’t ugly looking to you guys. After knitting on it for awhile I ended up frogging it. The Bernat cotton yarn was not living up to my expectations. I debated for a long time on what to do. I have two options in my stash, there is South West Trading Company 100% Bamboo, or a yarn I totally forgot I had, Tahki cotton classic. I finally decided on the Tahki Cotton Classic. If it doesn’t work out I’ll try the bamboo.

Fireworks, even though the city canceled the big fireworks show on the beach, very disappointing, we still got to see some nice fireworks in the neighborhood. I think because of the cancellation more people bought their own this year. I was surprised to see so many. Rohan is ok with fireworks. He gets a bit excited running around the yard and barking at first but then he settles down and sits by my feet. All except the fountains Rudy and the kids bought. I had to put him inside. He was practically pulling me across the yard trying to get to them.

Ikea, we heard the advertisements for the big Ikea sale. We still need some storage furniture so the advertising worked on us. It got us to make the drive to Orlando to check it out. Of course all the items on our list were not on sale. We did get some dressers and night stands. Rudy walks around the store saying things like “I can make that.” So, I took this picture because I want Rudy to make what’s in the back ground for Tyde’s room. That’s Rudy with the list. I have also put a request in for a desk to go in the craft room. Right now I use the dinning room table to sew on. It’s a pain to take the sewing machine out and put it back up. Actually, I just take it out and leave it there. We usually eat outside on the patio.

Here is what the dining room table looks like right now.A mess isn’t it? As you can tell I did clear the sewing machine off. Only because I wanted to put the drum carder on it ;). My pathetic looking little plant is surrounded by wool.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

It’s not actually ugly, it just got nicknamed that over time. Back in March of 07 my sister and I wanted to knit the same sweater pattern and we choose this,Surplice Lace Top.

My sister kept showing it to friends and family members and didn’t get the excited response that she felt it deserved. The responses were something like, "it’s ok," or "are you sure you want to knit that." So she dubbed it the ugly sweater. I of course liked it, so we started looking for yarn to knit it. The yarn suggested for it was not in our budget so we started looking for something that was a little less pricey. We ended up not finding anything. I put the pattern back on the shelf for another day.

I saw on Mcknitter's blog that a somewhat local craft store was going out of business. It’s a little bit of a drive for me to get there, but not bad. So I made a note to make sure to go by the going out of business sale later that week. When we got there everything was at least 40% off. It was crowded. Dax went to the painting section and I went straight to the knitting section and it had already been hit hard. I did see some bernat organic cotton and thought maybe this would work for the ugly sweater. The yarn suggested for the original pattern was also 100% cotton. I had to make a decision, the yarn was quickly disapperaing so I bought it. I know this yarn is usually used for rags. This could be one of my worst ideas in knitting, maybe my surplice lace top is destined to really be the ugly sweater. Throwing all caution to the wind, I casted on.If this doesn’t work out I’m going to have a lot of rag yarn in my stash.

As for the craft store sale I also found some jacquard dyes and Dax got some paint/paint brushes. So it was worth the drive, not to mention we ate lunch at Panera Bread.